Daily Archives: September 19, 2018

Canadian Coast Guard ends search for two P.E.I. fishermen missing off North Cape

The Canadian Coast Guard has called off the search for the two P.E.I. fishermen who went missing after their lobster fishing boat sank off North Cape on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Captain Glen DesRoches, 57, and his longtime helper Maurice (Moe) Getson, 54, have been missing since the vessel “Kyla Anne” sunk near the North Cape reef that afternoon. A third man, 22-year-old Tanner Gaudet, was able to swim safely to shore. The Coast Guard said in a statement that after over 33 hours of searching an area covering around 1,200 square nautical miles, the decision was made to end the search at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. >click to read<23:10

By-catch monitoring coming to inshore lobster fishery (some fishermen are pissed!)

For the first time, inshore lobster fishermen in southwest Nova Scotia will have someone looking over their shoulders when they head out to sea later this fall. It’s a change many are unhappy about, causing fishermen to snub their own associations — some of which have banded together to create a monitoring program. “We didn’t want this. None of the associations wanted this, but we have tried to make it better,” said Heather Mulock of the Coldwater Lobster Association on Wednesday. The federal Fisheries Department wants to gauge how many species, particularly cod and cusk, are being inadvertently caught in lobster pots. >click to read<21:34

Cushing captain to admit guilt in deaths of crew members

Christopher A. Hutchinson, 30, is scheduled to enter guilty pleas to two counts of manslaughter at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 26. In exchange, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has agreed to recommend a sentence of 48 months in prison with credit for time he has served while awaiting trial. That prison sentence would be followed by three years of supervised release. The charges carried a potential sentence of 10 years in prison. He has been held since March 2017. Hutchinson is charged with two counts of seaman’s manslaughter for the deaths of Tom Hammond, 27, of Rockland, and 15-year-old Tyler Sawyer, who lived in St. George and Waldoboro. They were crew members aboard Hutchinson’s lobsterboat, No Limits, which sank Nov. 1, 2014. >click to read<18:28

Nova Scotia issues permit for new tidal energy project in Bay of Fundy

The Nova Scotia government is moving ahead with a project that aims to harness the immense power of the Bay of Fundy’s tides, despite the uncertain future of the Cape Sharp Tidal venture. The Department of Energy and Mines has issued a marine renewable energy permit to Black Rock Tidal Power allowing it to test a 280-kilowatt floating platform for up to six months. The floating platform will be installed in Grand Passage, between Long Island and Brier Island in Digby County. The permit will allow the Halifax-based company to learn how its device operates in a marine environment and “take a staged approach to deployment.” It comes as an Irish technical team works to determine why the rotor on the Cape Sharp Tidal turbine in the Bay of Fundy is not turning. >click to read<16:21

Long Island turbine siting – ‘You’re impacting the whole resource’

Fishermen and city officials raised the alarm Tuesday about potential wind turbines in prime fishing and scalloping grounds south of Long Island. About 55 people attended a meeting with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to discuss the agency’s evaluation of possible offshore wind locations within a 2,300-square-mile portion of the New York Bight, between Long Island and New Jersey. Scalloper Eric Hansen said 40 to 50 percent of the scalloping grounds fished by New Bedford scallopers is within the area the federal government is considering leasing to wind developers, and if fishing there becomes dangerous, people will fish harder in the remaining places. “You’re impacting the whole resource,” he said. >click to read<13:35

Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 55′ Dixon Tuna/Longliner, 1000HP CAT C18, 20 KW Northern Lights

Specifications, information and 26 photos >click here< To see all the boats in this series, >click here<12:56

Court battle pits liar vs. liar – Flawed men tussle over who committed Ilwaco strangling

The defendant made his case with a shaking voice. The witness re-enacted a vicious murder with scarcely contained glee. The defense attorney teared up. And after two days of sordid testimony concluded on Sept. 12, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton said he was no closer to understanding what really happened when Oregon fisherman John Adkins was beaten, then strangled in the Port of Ilwaco in July 2009. Adkins’ former business partner, Erin Rieman, 55, pleaded to manslaughter in 2010, after former Pacific County Prosecutor David Burke gave deckhand Walter Bremmer, 54, full immunity in exchange for his testimony. However, when Bremmer fatally strangled a Hawaii man, Robert “Johnny” Leong, in 2012, Rieman asked to withdraw his plea, saying he only took it to prevent Bremmer from killing his family members. >click to read<12:03

Additional boats to join search for missing fishermen, weather conditions kept many vessels off the water

With the weather improving, more vessels will be able to join in the search for two fishermen whose boat capsized near Tignish, P.E.I., late Tuesday afternoon. The distress call went out at about 5:30 p.m. The Kyla Anne, a 40-foot fishing vessel with three people on board, had capsized. One person had made it to shore to call for help but two were still in the water.,,, “Additional vessels in the area tried to assist initially, however very poor ongoing weather conditions prevented them from joining the search yesterday evening and last night,” Maj. Mark Gough, senior public affairs officer with Maritime Forces Atlantic in Halifax, wrote in an email to CBC News. >click to read<10:58

Chairman’s Death Comes At Crucial Time For Western Pacific Fishery Management Council

The unexpected death this summer of Edwin Ebisui has left the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council with an empty seat and a decision to make on who should take over as its permanent chairman. The leadership void comes at a crucial time for the council, which has been pushing the Trump administration to open up protected waters to commercial fishing. “You can be sure there is all kinds of lobbying going on right now,” said Rick Gaffney, a former council member and head of the Hawaii Fishing and Boating Association.,,, Ebisui, 67, was a Honolulu lawyer who fished commercially for bottomfish such as onaga and opakapaka. He was also a strong advocate for Hawaii’s $100 million tuna industry during his tenure on the council. >click to read<09:55